Key lessons from the State of the News Media report

Posted by Kelley Vendeland on March 18, 2008 at 8:42 AM

In light of the recent release of The Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual State of the News Media report (summarized here), Online Journalism Review's Robert Niles has suggested three important lessons that online journalists and publishers should take from the report's findings.

-Diversify: Niles suggests that online newsrooms should broaden their offerings to include unconventional outlets like social networks and data-driven mashups, which would expand advertising revenue potential.

"Lose the focus on print- and broadcast-driven narratives and instead decide that anything offering accurate and enduring non-fiction information to people who need that information is 'news'," Niles writes.

-Unify on metrics: deciding on a single comprehensive and accurate approach to tracking user traffic would attract more advertisers and thus boost revenue.

-Focus on user-generated content: according to Niles, a sharper approach to both solicitation and management of UGC would attract more readers.

For the full report, go here.

Source: Online Journalism Review